Wireless network service providers, also known as mobile network operators, have been enjoying extensive growth in network user population and subscriptions. The majority of user equipment (“UE”) operating on mobile networks are mobile devices such as basic phones, smartphones, tablets, and the like. Mobile network operators utilize UE category information to allow radio access components, such as eNodeBs (“eNBs”) to communicate effectively with all UEs connected thereto. Currently, the UE categories defined in Third Generation Partnership Project (“3GPP”) Release 12 Technical Specification 36.606 are based upon a combined uplink and downlink capability.
New, non-traditional device types are now emerging, particularly with the growing interest in machine-to-machine (“M2M”) devices and the Internet of Things (“IoT”). It is becoming increasingly challenging for mobile network operators to service effectively the variety of device types and sheer number of devices that, within the next few years, likely will increase to several billion devices worldwide. Moreover, non-traditional device types will likely have distinctly divergent characteristics, including, for example, mobility characteristics (e.g., low, medium, or high mobility), bit rate characteristics (e.g., low, medium, or high bit rate), transmission frequency (e.g., hourly, daily, monthly, or upon request), transceiver characteristics, antenna characteristics, and the like. Non-traditional device types also will likely have distinctly divergent requirements, including bandwidth requirements, delay requirements, jitter requirements, battery life requirements, and the like. These divergent characteristics and divergent requirements will require different treatment by mobile network operators. The traditional ways of identifying UE categories—that is, dependent upon a combined uplink and downlink capability of a UE—will no longer be flexible nor scalable enough to meet the influx of these new, non-traditional device types all vying for service.